Welcome to the Jungle II Pro Boxing Weigh ins

In the Cobalt bar in the Black Bear Casino, Friday night at 5pm stood a lot of skill and power, as the boxers for Saturday night's fight card slowly walked in found a sit and waited for the weigh-ins to begin. A lot of them shook hands and smiled at each other, but they all knew tomorrow night there would be no smiling or hand shaking going on, only a touching of the gloves and then a lot of combinations of punches being thrown from one side of the ring to the other, trying to prove who the better fighter really was.

                         

All the boxers sitting across from their opponents waiting to weigh in on the scales.

The first fighter I ran into outside the casino was Lexie Keshick who had traveled all the way from Hannahville, MI to fight Jerome "Booj" Labarge. From what I was told he almost didn't have a ride to the fight. Then as I entered the Colbalt I spotted Jerome "Booj' Labarge sitting at the bar who I have known for little over year, he is a very exciting fighter to watch, in his last fight he brought the crowd to their feet. Then after a little while it was like a reunion of sorts the rest of the fighters slowly appeared and I meet them one by one, Jordan Shimmel, Harley Kilfian, Matt Myer, DeWayne Wisdom, and James Roe. Al Sands and Hector Orozco where there as well, but I work with Al Sands and I have know Hector since the last Welcome to the Jungle Fight Card. Then the fighters were called to sit in two rows across from each other facing their opponent and wait for their name to be called to get up on the scale and be weighed in. They did the weigh ins in order of first fight up to the main event fight. Unfortunetaly Gary Eyer's opponent Ronnie Peterson Jr. would not make the weigh ins that night because he was a last minute replacement for Steven Cox so he would have to weigh in, in the morning.

Gary "Stone Cold" Eyer weighing in,  his opponent Ronnie Peterson Jr. was unble to attend.

  Al "The Haitian Temptation" Sands facing off with his opponent Harley "The Sand Man" Kilfian

 I did finally met Travis Fulton after the weigh ins, because he was running late so he got there just as they were starting. I was lucky enough to meet all of the fighters except Ronnie Peterson Jr. Well  the weigh ins went well, everyone made weight except Lexie Keshick, who was told he had 2 hrs to lose a pound and a half, so I guess while everyone else was enjoying the casino, Lexie would be taking a hot shower in his hotel room to make the weight. So after the weigh ins, everyone said their good-byes until tomorrow night and I went and ate at the buffet.

Spirit of the Arts Open Tournament

On October 21st, 2012 I stepped into The Clyde Park Event Center located in the Clyde Iron in Duluth, MN.  As I walked into the room, covering the floor was what looked to be tumbling matts on two sides of the room, and a table lined with trophies on the back wall. This was going to be the first time I was going to shoot a Martial Arts tournament. I was pretty excited I hadn't been around this sport or their tournaments since I had last fought in a Martial Arts tournament myself when I was 10 years old. There was easily 100 kids under the age of sixteen and a lot of adults as well, and I believe most of the crowd was made up of parents of the participants. They were all  wearing different colored belts from a beginners white, to a Grand Masters black belt, these belts represent their status in their academies. Stefan & Stephanie Stein of Mattevi Martial Arts Academy and their two children, their son Colin age 13, and daughter Daniela, age10 were the organizers behind this event.  All four of them wear their black belts very proud and I could tell by watching their children perform that they had defenitely worked hard to earn them.

Daniela and Colin Stein

The tournament started at about 10:30 am and was finished at 5:00 pm, but there was so much to watch and learn from that it was hard to ever put my camera down. They started with Adult Black and Jr Black Forms, then all Belts Weapons, Team, and Creative Musical Forms. After that we had about an hour lunch break in which this time I tried to spend time deleting photos and taking photos of some of the kids that had placed in the tournament up to this point and had trophies awarded to them. 

Jumping Jim Bussen Grand Master Black Belt performing his Black Belt form.

A 17 year old black belt  performing a weapon form with his sword

After a break for lunch we moved on to the Opening Ceremony, Color Belt Forms, and then some Single sparring and Team sparring to close the tournament. During single sparring I met this woman's father and learned that she had come all the way from Thunder Bay, Canada to participate in this event and that she had some rather high credentials. Sydnie Wolotko age 18  who wears a brown belt had just recently competed at the World Kickboxing/Karate Competition in Montreal, Canada and in her weight class -60kg she had won the bronze medal. So after hearing this I was even more anxious to see her spar.

 Syndnie Wolotko preparing herself to spar whoever they put in front of her female or male she told me she  did not care.

Syndie Wolotko sparring against Jumping James Bussen and defenitely holding her own, unfortunetaly she was out pointed but it was a close match. But at the end of the day she still took back to Canada with her two 1st place trophies and one 2nd place trophy, so I guess you would have to say the trip was worth making it down for. 

If an event like this interests you or you would like to take up this type of sport you can contact 

Stefan or Stephanie Stein at Mattevi Martial Arts Academy

102 Belknap St. 

Superior, WI 54880

(715)-394-5425

Relay Recess at Byrant Elementary School, Superior, WI

Kiley D'Auria decided to do something for her senior project that would mean more to her then just a grade on her report card, because she had been touched personally by Cancer in her family, when a few years ago her grandmother passed away, it wasn't hard for her to realize that she wanted to be part of the message to reach more people about the awareness of this disease, she reached out to Beth Paquette and together they put on this years Relay Recess. Which would include getting children and adults to walk around the gym at Bryant Elementary School for a period of 2 hrs, listen to music provided by Cory Bonneville of Sounds Unlimited, enjoy food provided by The Food Service FSM Marktet Place and the kids also got to particapate in the 7 Element Obstacle course provided by Doucette's. The money raised from donations would be given to the American Cancer Society. This was the second part of Kiley's senior project, the first part was a large rummage sale and all of the proceeds also went to support the American Cancer Society. Fox 21 News also came out and interviewed Kiley about the subject she had chosen for her senior project and the meaning behind it. I believe this is an example that one person can make a difference.

These are the bags that were created by the families to honor their loved ones that were effect by Cancer.

Kiley D'Auria being interviewed by the anchor from Fox 21 News about why she choose to do this event for her senior project.

New Boxer in Town

Recently my son Marcus D'Auria moved in with me and decided that he liked the atmosphere of the gym that I worked at taking photographs, but he wanted to take it one step further, he didnt want to take photos from outside the ropes, he wanted to box inside the ropes. I was a little heistant at first but then I thought, this might be exactly what he needs, a goal and a direction to focus on , so I agreed to it. Well in less then two months he is sparring and looking really sharp, he still has a few more things to improve on, but Zach "Jungle Boy" Walters his trainer/coach is impressed with his progress and is talking about possibly matching him up for his first fight at Grandma's Sports Garden on November 14th. I have taken photos of all lot of first time fighters, but this time the photos will mean a little bit more then the rest that I have taken to date.

Marcus D'Auria and his trainer/coach Zach "Jungle Boy" Walters working on his punches on the mitt.